Murder charge reissued in 2007 death of boy

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (THE ENQUIRER) - A Battle Creek man is charged with murder Tuesday, five years after the case against him was dismissed.

Adam Markos, 30, was arrested by Battle Creek police Tuesday on a charge of open murder in the 2007 death of 4-year-old Dominic Munoz.

"It has been sitting in the office as a cold case and we reviewed it and we reissued it," said Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert. "We looked at it and gave it a second viewing and said there is a case there. I don't know why they dismissed it the last time."

Markos is expected to be arraigned today in District Court on charges of open murder and felony child abuse. He faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted.

The boy died Aug. 6, 2007, from head injuries police said occurred July 30. The boy was the son of Markos' girlfriend at the time, Lynn Wozniak.

"I have no clue, I have no idea," said J. Thomas Schaeffer, a Marshall attorney who represented Markos five years ago. "I am not aware of anything new that has come up. I had no clue that it was even in the investigation stage. There was not enough there then and I am not aware of any new evidence."

Charges against Markos were dropped in May 2008 the day before he was scheduled to stand trial in circuit court.

John Hallacy, who was county prosecutor at the time and is now a district judge, said then "cases continue to develop even after they were in court. We have an ethical obligation to continue to evaluate cases as they are pending in court and to make appropriate decisions based on those evaluations."

Gilbert said Tuesday there have been "minor additions but nothing substantial" in the case.

At court hearings in 2007, a pathologist said she found scrapes and bruises on the boy's body and an autopsy showed he died from head injuries.

Wozniak testified that she was working and that Markos was caring for her son the night he was injured.

Battle Creek police said Markos was arrested without incident Tuesday afternoon and taken to the Calhoun County jail.